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NA TURE 



[Alio Its ( 26, 1S80 



viz. that our knowledge of these sciences would remain frag- 

 mentary and onesided as long as they were not studied in their 

 mutual relations, found in him one of the earliest advocates in 

 this country. Against all opposition he tried to unite the 

 zoological and palceantological collections in the British Museum, 

 giving up this attempt only after having convinced himself 

 of the impracticability of the scheme ; and he readily joined the 

 baud of men who demanded that a museum should be not 

 merely a repository for the benefit of the professed student and 

 specialist, but serve in an equal measure for the recreation of the 

 mass of the people and for their instruction in the principles of 

 biology. This was the spirit in which he worked ; and in the 

 last years of his life he had the satisfaction of being able to say 

 that there was no other collection in existence more acces-ible 

 and more extensively used than the one under his charge. 



I am encouraged to return to-day to the same subject be- 

 cause I have daily the opportunity of observing that the public 

 more and more comprehend the use of museums, and that they 

 appreciate any real improvement, however slight. Paragraphs, 

 leaders, articles published in the public journals and periodicals, 

 references made in speeches or addresses, questions put in the 

 Houses of Parliament whenever an opportunity offers — all testify 

 that the progress of museums is watched with interest. Not 

 long ago a Royal Commission entered deeply and minutely into 

 the subject, and elicited a mass of evidence and information 

 invaluable in itself, though you may differ from some of the con- 

 clusions and views expressed in their final Report. Biological 

 science has made rapid strides : not only do we begin to under- 

 stand better the relations of the varieties of living forms to each 

 other, but the number of the varieties themselves that have been 

 made known has also been increased beyond all expectation, and 

 the old repositories have everywhere been found too narrow to 

 house the discoveries of the last forty years. Therefore you find 

 that the United States, Austria, Prussia and Saxony, Denmark 

 and Holland, France and Great Britain, have erected, or are build- 

 ing anew, their national mu eums, not to mention the numerous 

 smaller museums, which are more or less exclusively devoted to 

 some branch of biological science. 



The jiurposes for which museums are formed are threefold : — 

 (i) To diffuse instruction among, and offer rational amusement 

 to, the mass of the people ; (2) to aid in the elementary study 

 of biology ; and (3) to supply the professed student of biology 

 or the specialist with as complete materials for his scientific re- 

 searches as can be obtained, and to preserve for future genera- 

 tions the materials on which those researches have been based. 



Although every museum has, as it were, a physiognomy of its 

 own, differing from the others in the degree in which it fulfils 

 one, or two, or all three of those objects, we may divide 

 museums into three classes, viz. : — • 



(l) National, (2) Provincial, and (3) strictly Educational 

 museums — a mode of division which may give to those of this 

 assembly who are not biologists an idea of what we mean by the 

 term "species." The three kinds pass into each other, and 

 there may be hybrids between them. 



The museum of the third class, the strictly Educational 

 inslitution, we find established chiefly in connection with uni- 

 versities, colleges, medical and science schools. Its principal 

 object is to supply the materials for teaching and studying the 

 elements and general outlines of biology ; it supplements, and is 

 the most necessary help for, oral and practical instruction, which 

 always ought to be combined with this kind of museum. The 

 conservation of objects is subservient to their immediate utilityand 

 unrestricted accessibility to the student. The collection is be-t 

 limited to a selection of representatives of the various groups 

 or "types," arranged in strictly systematic order, and associated 

 with preparations of such parts of their organisation as are most 

 characteristic of the group. Collections of this kmd I have 

 seen arranged with the greatest ingenuity, furnishing the student 

 with a .series of demonstrations which correspond to the plan 

 followed in some elementary text book. This, however, is not 

 sufficient for practical instruction ; besides the exhibited per- 

 manent series, a stock of well-preserved specimens should be 

 kept for the express purpose of allowing the student to practise 

 dissection and the method of independent examination. And 

 in this latter I am inclined to include the method of determining 

 to what order, family, genus, or species any given object should 

 be referrtd. By .such practice alone can the student learn to 

 understand the relative value of taxonomic characters and acquire 

 the elementary knowledge indispensable for him in the future. 

 Finally, in the educational museum should be formed a series 



of all the animals and plants, which are of economic value or 

 otherwise of importance to man. 



The proposal to unite living and extinct forms in one series, 

 which has been urged by eminent men with such excellent reasons, 

 might be tried in the educational museum with great advantage 

 to the student, as the principal objections that are brought for- 

 ward against this plan being carried out in larger collections, do 

 not apply here. 



A museum which offers to the teacher and student the mate- 

 rials mentioned, fulfils its object ; its formation does not require 

 either a long time or heavy expense ; but the majority of these 

 institutions outgrow in time their original limits in one or the 

 other direction ; and if such additions do not interfere with the 

 general arrangement of the museum, they neither destroy its 

 character, nor do they add to its value as a strictly educational 

 institution. 



The principal aim of a Provincial Museum ought, in my 

 opinion, to be popular instruction. I do not mean that it should 

 be merely a place for mild amusement and recreation, but that 

 it should rank equal with all similar institutions destined to 

 spread knowledge and cultivate taste among the people. To 

 attain this aim it should contain an arranged series of well-pre- 

 served specimens representing as many of the remarkable types 

 of living forms as are obtainable ; a series of useful as well as 

 noxious plants and animals ; of economic products derived from 

 the animal and vegetable kingdoms ; and last (but not least), a 

 complete and accurately-named series of the flora and fauna of 

 the neighbourhood. The majority of provincial museums with 

 which I am acquainted are far from coming up to this ideal. 

 One of the first principles by which the curator of such a 

 museum should be guided is to admit into his collection no 

 specimen xinless it be well mounted and a fair representation of 

 its species. He has not the excuse of his colleague in charge of 

 a large museum, who has to retain those monsters which are 

 literally \a%.btiis-noircs, viz., specimens to which a history is 

 attached, and the removal of which would sooner or later be 

 resented by some of his fellow labourers. The only too frequent 

 presence of such badly-mounted specimens in provincial museums 

 is not always the fault of the curator. The slender means with 

 which he is provided are generally insufficient to encourage 

 taxidermists to bestow the necessary amount of skill and time on 

 their work. Besides, taxidermy is an art which depends as 

 much on natural gift as drawing or modelling, and as long as we 

 are obliged to be satisfied with receiving into our collections 

 mediocre specimens, mediocre stufiers will take up taxidermy as 

 a tr.ade without there being one who is naturally qualified for it. 



The direct benefit of a complete collection ot the flora and 

 fauna of the district in which the provincial mu-eum is situated, 

 is obvious and cannot be exaggerated. The pursuit of collect- 

 ing and studying natural history objects gives to the persons 

 who are inclined to devote their leisure hours to it, a beneficial 

 training for whatever their real calling in life may be : they 

 acquire a sense of order and method ; they develop their gift of 

 observation ; they are stimulated to healthy exercise. Nothing 

 encourages them in this pursuit more than a well-named and 

 easily accessible collection in their own native town, upon which 

 they can fall back as a pattern and an aid for their own. This 

 local collection ought to be always arranged and named according 

 to the plan and nomenclature adopted in one of those numerous 

 monographs of the British fauna and flora in which this country 

 excels ; and I consider its formation in every provincial museum 

 to be of higher importance than a collection of foreign objects. 



The majority of provincial museums contain not only biological 

 collections, but, very properly, also collections of art and 

 literature ; it is no jiart of my task to speak of the latter, but 

 before I proceed to the next part of my address, I must say that 

 nothing could more strikingly prove the growing desire of the 

 loeople for instruction than the erection of the numerous free 

 libraries and museums now spread over the country. The more, 

 the Iiealthier their rivalry, the safer their growth « ill be, espe- 

 cially if they avoid depending on aid from the State or placing 

 themselves in the hands of a responsible minister— it they 

 remain what they are— municipal institutions — the children and 

 pride of their own province. 



However great, however large a country or a nation may be, 

 it can have in reality only one National Museum, truly deserving 

 of the name. Yours is the British Museum ; those of Scotland 

 and Ireland can never reach the same degree of completeness, 

 th^.ugh there is no one who wishes more heartily than I do that 

 they may approach it as closely as conditions permit. The 



